Saturday October 31 marks the end of the season for the Texas Motorplex O’Reilly Bracket Racing Series. Gates will open at 9:00 am with Junior Dragster Time Trials beginning at 10:00 am and the Bracket Time Trials kicking off at 12:00pm (noon). The race for the points leaders culminates at this event with the champions being crowned at the Texas Motorplex Racer Appreciation Banquet. Admission for this weekend is $10.00 for Adults and children 6-15 are $5.00.

ENNIS, TX (Oct. 24, 2009) — Alex Hossler (left) won his career-first National Guard ADRL Pro Extreme event in memorable fashion, crossing the eighth-mile finish line at the Texas Motorplex with his 1970 Camaro on fire after posting a 3.73-seconds pass at 202.48 miles per hour to beat Quain Stott in the final round of the LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals V.

Also earning National Guard Minuteman trophies at the final event of the National Guard ADRL’s year, but the first points-paying opportunity of the 2010 season were new class champion Khalid Al-Balooshi in Pro Nitrous, Extreme 10.5 racer Chuck Ulsch, Scott Gray, who also won his first Pro Extreme Motorcycle championship earlier in the day, and Cary Goforth with his first official Extreme Pro Stock win. Morgan Benfield of Virginia Beach, Virginia also won her first Junior Minuteman in the exhibition Pro Jr. Dragster class.

“How’s that for a spectacular finish?” Hossler asked upon climbing from his car after stopping on the track where safety crews sprayed the engine with a fire extinguisher. “It banged the blower right when we crossed the line, but it lasted just long enough to get the job done.”

Hossler and Stott left almost simultaneously, but when a 3.75 at 205.57-mph pass flashed across Stott’s scoreboard, it translated to a .021 margin of victory for Hossler, who hails from Canton, Illinois.

The Pro Nitrous final was close, too, but only because Al-Balooshi (right) had an off-the-pace .191 reaction time attached to a record-setting pass of 3.81 seconds at 196.42 mph that easily eclipsed the 3.98/184.88 combination assembled by veteran Charles Carpenter.

It marked Al-Balooshi’s career-first National Guard ADRL event title, though earlier in the day, he also won the National Guard ADRL’s championship-deciding Speedtech Battle for the Belts when Al-Anabi Racing teammate Burton Auxier was disqualified from the final for leaving .004 before the green light flashed.

“It is good for the Al-Anabi team,” said Al-Balooshi, who calls Doha, Qatar, home. “Very exciting to win.”

The World Finals V Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 final offered a measure of payback for Ulsch (left), who faced off against Spiro Pappas for the second time in one day after Pappas stepped up to win the Pro Nitrous Speedtech Battle for the Belts final. The Clarksville, Maryland-based driver didn’t miss the opportunity, either, taking a holeshot win in his supercharged ’68 Camaro over Pappas’ turbocharged 2009 Pontiac GXP entry.

Leaving with a .021 reaction to a .115 in the opposite lane, Ulsch put together a 3.94 lap at 201.46 mph that beat out the 3.92 at 193.27 that delivered Pappas a new elapsed time record, but a runner-up finish.

“That feels good! I’m glad I was able to do my job and help my teammates get the win,” Ulsch declared. “I owed him that one!”

Like Balooshi, Pro Extreme Motorcycle winner Gray (right), from Ocala, Florida, doubled up from his earlier Speedtech Battle for the Belts triumph, running 4.21 at 170.67 mph aboard his ’08 Suzuki to down Lance Hines in the World Finals V final.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in that it’s happened,” Gray said of his two-timing win. “After winning the Belt I kind of relaxed because we had accomplished what we came here to do, which was win the championship, but maybe that’s what helped me win tonight, too. I wasn’t too uptight about what was happening.”

The Extreme Pro Stock final came down to a classic Ford versus Chevy match, with Goforth’s 2008 Cobalt coming out on top over the ’09 Mustang of Scott Hintz in his National Guard ADRL debut. Goforth (left), from Holdenville, Oklahoma, ran low ET of the meet for the class with a 4.06 win at 177.23 mph over 4.151 at 173.65 by Hintz.

“This feels so good,” Goforth said, hoisting the National Guard Minuteman trophy high after his first official Extreme Pro Stock win, though he did win last year at Rockingham, North Carolina, when the class was in its introductory exhibition stage. “This is for my team, for the guys on my team, who worked so hard to put me here today.”

Televised coverage of the Speedtech Battle for the Belts will air Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. Eastern on the Versus network, with coverage of the LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals V to follow two weeks later on Sunday, Nov. 22, also at 3 p.m. Eastern on the Versus television network.

The weekend forecast calls for sunshine and hot times at the ADRL National Guard World Finals, presented by LenMar Motorsports at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX. Action kicks off on Friday with the Battle of the Belts, crowning the 2009 Champions in all classes, and continues Saturday, with eliminations beginning at 3:00 pm.

Action under the lights both nights is capped off by a Monster Truck grudge match between legendary Bigfoot and Snakebite.

NEW PARKING and Traffic Plan

Due to this weeks’ rains, parking for all spectators will be shifted to the new LOT C, located north of the pits and the race track, instead of the customary parking lot along Hwy. 287.

Follow signs to Gate 20 access LOT C. Access to Lot C is from two directions. If arriving from I-45, after you leave Ennis, look for the reader board sign and the Ennis Police cars at the edge of the Motorplex property, under the cell tower. This is Cooke Road, a County road.

Proceed around the Motorplex property to the entrance to Lot C. Parking is $10 per carload.

NO trailers, big rigs, etc. This parking is for passenger vehicles only.

If arriving from I35E, you will be directed to U turn as usual, proceed to the western edge (Waxahachie side), following the signs to GATE 20, then down the road next to the pits, around the Motorplex, to Gate 20 and Lot C. NO trailers, big rigs, etc. This is for passenger vehicles only.

Platinum parking for $20 is also available. Enter Gate 7, off of hwy. 287 at the blue VIP building to access this parking.

Revell Inc. and NHRA have announced that Revell will introduce nostalgic drag racing model kits in the very near future bearing the NHRA logo.

Revell in the early 1970s started as a major player in drag racing sponsorships and worked hand in hand with NHRA and introduced many Funny Cars, Top Fuel dragsters, Pro Stockers, and more bearing some of the most well-known names in the history of drag racing.

With the advent of the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series and the Reunions, Revell will be rereleasing a number of its model kits of the cars that have been a force in the long history of Funny Car, such as Roland Leong’s Hawaiian and the well-known Chi-Town Hustler of Farkonas, Coil, & Minick. These cars will be joined by many other of Revell’s most popular drag racing model kits down the road.

Revell will have a booth at some of the upcoming Reunions and will display numerous drag racing model kits as well as how a model kit is first designed and tooled. Future drag racing releases will be announced at these shows as well. Examples of current kits such as the Stone, Woods & Cook Willys Gasser can be seen at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California.

“We are excited and look forward to a continued relationship with the NHRA and Revell leading the way to create interest and excitement for the drag racing enthusiast as well as the model-kit builder,” said Bob Sutalski, senior vice president of product development, Revell.

“NHRA welcomes the return of Revell and their classic model kits,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president-sales & marketing, NHRA. “The Revell models were synonymous with the sport of NHRA Drag Racing, and reintroducing these classic model kits to today’s fans will reinforce the long and storied history of the sport and its partnership with Revell.”

Testing is in full swing as National Guard ADRL Speedtech Battle for the Belts contenders are out preparing for this weekend’s LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals V at Ennis, TX.

Current Pro Extreme World Champion Jason Scruggs said he was out this past weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park, but didn’t manage to make even one full pass in five attempts, including one aborted with a faulty transmission.

“The track was decent, but we were trying some new things and it just kept shaking,” Scruggs said of his Garret-built ’68 Camaro. “It had some good 60-foot times and one low 2.50 to the 330 (foot marker), but I wasn’t pedaling it or trying to drive it hard.”

Scruggs also said that despite the less-than-satisfying Memphis session, he probably won’t join several of his Pro Extreme brethren in a last-chance Thursday test outing at Crandall, TX.

“We pretty much know where we are and what we have,” he said. “And that track (Texas Motorplex) has been good to us. Since they moved the Battle for the Belts there we’ve only lost one round and that was in the finals on Saturday night last year when fluid got under my tire. I’m feeling pretty good right now, but whoever wins will have to run fast three times and cut good lights. Whoever wins is going to deserve it.”

Also on hand at Memphis was Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 contender Spiro Pappas with his ’09 GXP. Pappas said he made about eight passes, including “three that were right where we want them.” He added he’s “100-percent confident” heading to Texas and called the upcoming Speedtech Battle for the Belts “the single biggest race of my career.”

“This is the big one; this is the one I want. I’m so motivated, you can’t even imagine,” the Chicago-based driver declared. “When I get to the final I just hope I get (defending series champ Billy) Glidden there. That would be perfect.”

Though not a Speedtech Battle for the Belts qualifier, also of note a few hundred miles east was Pro Extremer Von Smith (left) who turned only the second 3.60 pass in history (after Scruggs’ 3.66 at Memphis this summer) when he went 3.69 at 206.92 mph over the eighth mile in a Texas tune-up event at Virginia Motorsports Park.

That run placed Smith and his Howard Moon-tuned ’68 Camaro on top of the hastily assembled Al-Anabi Shootout qualifying list and he followed up with a 3.70 at 206.86 in eliminations before being ousted in the semis by Quain Stott, yet another National Guard ADRL regular.

Stott fell in the final, however, to Belts qualifier Todd Tutterow, who ran a string of 3.70s at more than 200 mph each time to take the win.

National Guard ADRL Pro Nitrous racer and Belts starter Burton Auxier won the nitrous-assisted portion of the event in a field that included teammates and Belts contenders Mike Castellana and Khalid Al Balooshi, in addition to Pro Nitrous racers John DeCerbo (who finished runner-up to Auxier), Randall Haynes and Pat Bennett.